Roll up! Roll up! Welcome to the Grand Opening of the CFUK Latte Art Challenge 2018. Prepare to be truly amazed, dazzled and astounded by the multitudinous array of creative talents displayed by the great pourers of our forum!

Before we go any further though we'd like to say thank you @joey24dirt for kindly donating one of his amazing reclaimed skateboard tampers* to be awarded to the winner. Thanks to @Glenn, CFUK Forum owner, for giving the go ahead and support for the competition. Thank you to Ian for offering one of his hand whittled wooden spoons to the first competitor to get bombed out in the first round. Thank you to Jony for his donation of £10** to be awarded to the winner to buy a bag of beans of their choosing. There are a couple of CFUK LAC 2018 Finalist bar towels up for grabs too! Thanks to everyone for following the challenge and supporting the competitors - we are looking forward to lots of banter along the way! And of course, thank you to all the participants! It may seem a daunting prospect but don’t worry, enjoy the experience! And finally thanks to @Snakehipsfor the much coveted Max Bygraves Cup for the duffest tulip in the semi finals and also his entertaining entertainments!

On with the show! After countless months spent frothing, pouring, YouTubing and honing their skills our intrepid competitors are poised, chomping at the bit and ready to pour their hearts (rosettas or tulips) out.

They are going to be shaken, stirred and well and truly mixed up and the resulting randomised first round draw will be announced here at 7pm tonight (Sunday, 23rd September).

First round to be concluded by midnight Sunday, September 30th.

Please contact your opponent via the forum message service asap to agree a mutually convenient time and date for you to compete simultaneously for a maximum time of 30 minutes.

One competitor of each pairing to advise @MildredM on this thread of the agreed date and start time. I will then set up a fresh thread for each individual pairing in readiness for photos of shots, banter, cheering, heckling and voting.

5 MINUTES BEFORE YOUR PRE ARRANGED START TIME and via your individual thread you will be advised of your MAGIC WORD/S.

You will have 30 minutes, starting from your mutually agreed time, to upload an image of your best latte art pour (free pour, heart, rosetta or whatever you decided upon). The magic word/s must be written on a piece of paper and be clearly visible in the photo.

Following completion, a poll will be created to enable voting. Forum members are invited to vote for their preferred pour - strictly one vote per member. The competitor attracting the most votes will progress to round two and once again a randomised draw will take place to determine who plays who.

While we wait for the draw to take place here is the one, the only, @Snakehips Producktions with his latest koffaoke offering. Ladies and gentlemen let’s hear it for 'Show Me The Way To Steam Foam', the latte art competitor's lament!

[video=youtube_share;UZm4jhsvkaU]

*Winner to pay p&p of £8 RM Special Delivery. Further costs will be incurred if shipping to Europe or beyond.

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